Fox Mayhem: Slot Overview
If you've ever chanced upon a fox IRL, they're often rather timid creatures, unwilling to cross paths with humans but happy to nab the edible garbage we leave lying around. To other creatures like chickens or, in this case, pigs, it can be a whole other story. The antagonist in Play'n GO's online slot Fox Mayhem is a dastardly sort indeed. In this game, he's forever trying to lay his paws on a naive pig who is happy filling his face with farmyard produce. That's the premise of Fox Mayhem, which counts Cash symbols, Prize Collections, and free spins as its primary features.
Whatever your thoughts on Fox Mayhem may be - a glorious celebration of rural life or filler, we can probably agree that Play'n GO has flexed some design talent to produce a very pleasant-looking and sounding game. Vibrant artwork brings the farm to life, filled as it is with thick grass, fluttering butterflies, and miscellaneous rural touches. The other main character, the pig, looks all adorable with his wooden bucket and big eyes, is instantly likeable and contributes to an amusing interplay between itself and the cunning fox.
Next to the pig sits Fox Mayhem's gaming grid made up of 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 paylines. Combinations of winning symbols pay left to right on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reels. Playable from 20 p/c to £/€100 and medium volatile, the top return to player figure clocks in at 96.2%, but being Play'n GO, players should always check the paytable to see which version they are playing as lower configurations are available. Stakes range from 20 p/c to £/€100.
Moseying on over to the pay symbols, we find 10 regular pays. The 5 low pays are wood nailed 10 to A card ranks, worth 4 to 5 times the bet for 5-of-a-kind, while the 5 high pays are a piece of bacon on a utensil, an oven mitt, an empty tray, a knife and fork, and a meat cleaver, all pretty macabre from a pig's point of view. Hitting a 5 premium symbol win pays 20 to 30 times the bet. Lastly, landing on all but the leftmost reel is Fox Mayhem's wild symbol. The wild substitutes for all symbols except scatters and Cash symbols.
Fox Mayhem: Slot Features
Fox Mayhem's two main features are Prize Collections and free spins - in both, you want to keep an eye out for Cash symbols. Cash symbols land with bet multiplier values of up to x10 at the most.
Prize Collection
Landing at least 3 Cash symbols triggers the Prize Collection feature. Only Cash symbols can land during the Prize Collection, locking into place for the feature's duration. Landing new Cash symbol resets the spin count back to 3. The feature ends when all of the spins have been used up or all 15 positions are filled with Cash symbols.
Free Spins
The free spins round is triggered when 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols land, awarding 10, 12, or 15 free spins, respectively. In free spins, there is an increased chance of triggering the Prize Collection feature as there are extra Cash symbols on the reels. When at least 3 Cash symbols land, their values are collected, and then they are cleared from the reels - after that, the Prize Collection feature plays out.
Should less than 3 Cash symbols land on a free spin, their values are instantly collected. Also, free spins award a random multiplier of x2, x5, x10, or x20, which is applied to the total value of the collected Cash symbols. Free spins cannot be retriggered.
Fox Mayhem: Slot Verdict
The definition of the word 'mayhem' according to Google is 'violent or extreme disorder; chaos'. Perhaps the word is subjective because Fox Mayhem didn't exactly reach outrageous states of bedlam during testing. It was, by contrast, pretty chilled, though props to the design team for creating such an amusing, richly drawn outdoor setting to enjoy the game in. The base game that is since free spins sends players indoors where the real gorging, such as it is, has a chance to occur.
Gorging is one of the amusing things about Fox Mayhem, too, as the more Cash symbols the piggy eats, the bigger he gets… right before he gets snatched by the fox when certain features end. The bigger the pig gets, the bigger the corresponding prize pool will likely be, too, so quite literally, the bigger, the better. The random multiplier in free spins is a major help, too, because, without it, the Cash symbols and Prize Collection feature can only do so much. No need for a calculator to work this out since if the grid is filled with x10 prizes, you're looking at a grand total of 150x the bet, which is pretty so-so by just about any standard for a full screen of maxed-out money symbols. Manage to get that result in free spins with the x20 multiplier in tow; then, you're on your way to cracking the game's 4,000x max win.
Again, that figure is a little skimpy by modern online slot standards. However, not horrifically so if the rest of what Fox Mayhem delivers appeals. It doesn't have massive numbers, and the gameplay is limited, yet if a charming, professionally executed game with a hungry pig and an easy-to-grasp Cash symbol collection feature sounds cool, then a certain amount of mayhem may ensue. It's not without a level of porcine charm, but Fox Mayhem isn't likely to be a game which tested Play'n GO's design talent a whole heck of a lot.
